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Thursday, March 27; 1986
Humor spices Canadian Brass
By Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
The Canadian Brasid **8 p.m. Monday in Hoch**
Auditorium. Tickets are available at the Murphy
Hall Box Office and cost $12.50 and $10.50 for
the general public, $6.25 and $2.55 for KU students and $11.50 and $9.50 for senior citizens and other students.
Humor can add a new dimension to what many people consider a starchy affair — a chamber music concert — a member of the Canadian Brass said Monday.
"When we perform it's an environment where we're presenting ourselves as well as our music," said Charles Daulenbach, tuba player for the ensemble at the festival of introduction to a piece of music. That makes people relaxed.
"Music is to be enjoyed, but it's to be enjoyed at many levels — on the entertainment level and intellectual level. But when music is being heard for the first time, humor can give the audience a feel for the piece, and if it being heard for the 2,000th time, it can reveal something new."
Originally, the Brass was scheduled to perform on Feb. 11, but the performance was postponed because the KU-University of Missouri basketball game had been rescheduled for the same evening.
While the concert's date change might have caused problems for the Concert Series, the Brass was able to come in another tour, Daellenbach said.
The Midwestern Brass Chamber Music Workshop, which will feature performances by KU faculty and by brass ensembles from throughout the Midwest, was postponed along with the Canadian Brass concert, said instructor, instructor in tutor and euphonium and coordinator of the workshop.
"The second date was actually better because more groups could come with the Easter holiday," Watson said.
A clinic featuring the Brass will be at 3 p.m. Monday in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.
Ensemble members are Frederic Mills and Ronald Romm, trumpets; Martin Hackleman, French horn; Eugene Watts, trombone; and Daellenbach.
"The main idea behind the brass workshop is to have a chance to study and hear all the different types of music that is written for brass ensembles," Watson said. "That's why we're building the program around the Canadian Brass. They're probably the best brass group in the world right now."
The ensemble's 1977 tour of China was the first by a western musical group since the Chinese cultural revolution.
Being in China in the late 1970s was fascinating, Daellenbach said, because attitudes towards music were beginning to change.
"Chinese musicians had three compositions that had been approved and that was all they could play," he added as a new experience for the audience."
The ensemble will perform at KU using 24-karat, gold-plated matched instruments which Daellenbach described as not only beautiful but also helpful in improving the sound and sound of the instruments.
for the concert, the Brass will perform musical selections by Vivaldi, Bach, Paganini, Sonny Kompanek and Luther Henderson.
Jackie Davis, director of the Concert and Chamber Music Series, said people who are not able to attend the rescheduled concert could return their tickets for a refund or exchange them for another event, such as the Sarah Vaughan concert April 26.
Sweeney finds revenge with razor
Bv Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, and April 4-5 in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Murphy Hall. Reserved tickets are available at the Murphy Hall Box Office, public, $4, $3 and for KU students and $7, $5 and $3 for senior citizens and other students.
For Sweeney Todd, revenge is sweet — well, maybe it's more snovey and saucey.
Inceded because he was wrongly convicted by a wicked judge, Sweeney escapes from prison and returns to London seeking revenge for the death of his wife and the downfall of his daughter. His recipe for revenge is the slicing and dicing of his victims with a barber's razor, and then having them baked into pot nies.
Murder, dismemberment and cannibalism are not the average ingredients for a night of escapism
Above, London citizens on Fleet Street coerce Tobias, assistant to the hair tonic peddler (Danny Lassley, Topeka sophomore), to return their money for the fake tonic.
Near right, Pirtelli, the hair tonic peddler (Paul Jackson, Derby senior), shaves a beggar's face (Mark Hays, Garden City graduate student) to prove his miracle elixir works.
at the theater. But in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," these elements combine for a juicy adventure tale, complete with all the crusty details inherent in a story set in Victorian England, according to Jack Wright, the show's director.
Far right, Sweeney Todd (Mark Rector, Lawrence junior), finds his tool of revenge, a barber's razor that belonged to his wife.
"It's an adventure story," Wright, professor of theater and media arts, said Tuesday. "People lock on to the grotesque nature of 'Sweeney Todd,' but no one objected to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'
"Sweeney Todd," with music and lyrics by Stephen Soudheim, won a Tony Award in 1978 for best musical. But the roots of the story go back to Victorian England, where folk tales about the mad barber were sold on street corners.
"Murder and bloodshed are a part of all adventures. Sure, cannibalism is not a part of the routine; neither are people get hungry enough to be scared into snake pits or Dracula sucking people's blood."
The story continues to be a popular method of behavior modification in England, Wright said.
"In London, children are told
before they go to bed that Sweeney will get them if they don't watch out."
Because of the show's nature, Wright said, it doesn't fit into any pre-set patterns. It's more of a show about contrasts.
People are brutally murdered on stage by Sweeney, played by Mark Rector, Lawrence junior. At the same time the 32-piece orchestra, conducted by Zuohuan Chen, associate professor of music, is playing a ballad which seduces the goat into sympathy for Sweeney.
The rich and the poor of London during the industrial revolution are seen side by side.
There is even a contrast between theater and television in the staging of the KU production, he said.
Phyllis Pancella, St. Louis senior who plays Mrs. Lovett, one of the show's leads, said the conflict between dreams and reality was an important aspect of the show. She said her character was so infatuated with Sweeney and caught up in her dream for a happy life that she was willing to overlook his gruesome deeds.
"She's eminently hopeful,"
Pancella said. "She talks a lot about the dreams she's had, Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd is one of her dreams."
The way Lovett and Sweeney look at the killings and cannibalism makes a statement about the way people are taken advantage of in society.
"They don't think of it as eating each other," Pancella said, "They think of it as a way of the world. And that's the way Mrs. Lovett is. She takes a terrible situation and turns it around to her advantage."
Realizing that there are victims and survivors in life is the whole idea of the show, Wright said.
"There's a little bit of Sweeney in all of us," Wright said. "Circumstances drive us to the point where we're capable of anything, but we are be prepared as human beings to deal with that type of horrific incident."
"I hope an adventure like 'Sweeney Todd' can remind us that's part of our experience, but also that it's a damn good thing to be alive. It's a little slice of adventure that reminds us what we're all capable of and that we have to guard against it."
KU student finances own film for competition
Special to the Kansan
By Leslie Wohlwend Skyrms
At 5:30 a.m. on the first day of KU's spring break most students had already reached their vacation spot of choice. Even those who remained in Lawrence were likely to still be in bed.
Tim DePapee, Emporia senior, however,
was up and set to begin shooting his most ambitious film to date — "The Problem of Marginality."
By 7 a.m., DePape and members of his film crew were ready to shoot their first scene in the Kansas Union. By noon, the filming of the first scene was finished.
"We've all put so much energy and effort in this one shot," DePaepe said. "I just pray it will come out."
DePaepe, a film studies major who wrote and directed "The Problem of Marginality," invested more than time and effort in this project. The film, he said, represents the personal transformation he has undergone since last year.
"The Problem of Marginality" is the story of Mike, a young man born in the Midwest but
raised in the northern part of Asia. When Mike returns to the United States to attend college, he experiences culture shock. He rejects American values and in particular, the way in which Americans are apathetic towards foreigners.
Until last year, DePaepe said, he was one of those apathetic Midwesterners. Then he took an Asian-American literature course through the Center for East Asian Studies at KU. The class, in which he read Asian-American novels, poems and short stories, gave him a new perspective on Asian and American cultures. He hopes his film will make his audience similarly aware.
"I want people who see my film to understand that we can be close to foreigners right here," DePaepe said. "And that by meeting and knowing them we can learn a lot. I want the audience to understand the difference yet the similarity of people."
DePaepe used a multi-national cast and crew, who shared his vision and love of film.
Ben Froidevaux, Neuchatel, Switzerland, senior, played the lead. He said he was chosen to play Mike because he and the character had
similar backgrounds.
Mingfong Tiao, Taiwan graduate student,
taped a documentary about the film production.
She said she wanted to work with DePapee and to help future KU filmmakers.
"I didn't know how to do film production before this," Tiao said. "I'm making this documentary for me and my department. I will teach you how to film. This documentary will show them how."
Ben Riggin, Overland Park senior, said he hoped to gain valuable hands-on experience from the film, Riggin, DePape and several other crew members worked together making traffic safety films for the University department of continuing education last summer.
DePapee and his crew used their scant film production knowledge well. "The Problem of Marginality" features some fairly sophisticated camera work for a student film.
Before production started, DePaepe built a crane for high angle shots. The filmmakers also frequently used a tripod dolly for tracking shots.
DePaepe said the film would be about a half hour long. He had a shooting budget of $400:
Most of the equipment was borrowed from the KU Audio-Visual Center. DePaepe financed the film with money he had saved while waiting until he felt he was ready to make a film of this calibre.
He plans to exhibit "The Problem of Marginality" at several film festivals, including the Kansas Student Film Festival which is part of the state's 125th anniversary celebration.
DePapepe has entered shorter films in past festivals with some success. He has been the first runner-up at the Kansas Film and Video Festival for the past two years.
DePapepe shot videotape at the same time he filmed so he could see the immediate results of his efforts. He said the videotape he has seen so far has been satisfactory.
"From the tape, I think I've accomplished 90 percent of what I wanted to do," he said. "The delay in shooting will allow me to rewrite and reshoot to enhance the overall quality of the film.
but I have also learned so much in those four or five days of shooting. It has made al three other years at college worthwhile."
Snapshots
Replacements promises diversity in concert
Minneapolis' fun-filled rockers, the Replacements, will make one of many trips to Lawrence when they play Wednesday in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
If last fall's Parody Hall show was any indication, the band will play songs off its latest and first big record label release, "Tim." It also will play songs from its first four albums, other artists' songs and maybe even some requests. The band has been called many things, but never predictable.
Releasing one album every year since 1981, the Replacements' sound has grown broader as it's grown older. And like a fellow band from Minnesota, Husker Du, the Replacements has stood out among the high-speed, thrash bands. It has cleaned up its sound without losing the edge.
Glee Club to feature American composers
The concert, said director Neil Brown, will feature only American composers, but will include a variety of musical styles from spirituals and bellads to a type of barbershop music and medleys.
The KU Men's Glee Club will present its spring concert at 8 tonight in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. Admission is free.
The show will start at 9 p.m. Tickets are available from the SUA box office and CATS tickets outlets, costing $8 for the general public and $7 with a KUID. The band Charlie Burton and the Hiccups will open the show.
Some of the composers whose works or arrangements will be performed are Eugene Butler, a Kansan, George M. Cohen, Randall Thompson, Stephen Foster and Houston Bright.
Contemporary music to be featured by choir
Romantic and contemporary music selections will be performed by the KU Chamber Choir in its spring concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall.
"We've been in the Bach and Handel mode for a while and it's time to get into the 19th and 20th century," director James Raisten said recently. The chamber choir performs works from several composers including Giuseppe Verdi, Sergel Rachmaninov, Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy and Benjamin Britten.
Agatha Christie Mystery
Child's rhyme is clue to play's mystery
By Monique O'Donnell
Staff writer
on little Hampshire, 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m.
at the Lawrence Community Theatre, 150 North Amherst streets, Tickets are $5, $4 for senior citizens.
Larry Sherr, professor of business, plays the butler Mr. Rogers in "Ten Little Indians," pays attention to detail in his makeup before Sunday's performance.
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; one choked his little self and then there were nine.
The gruesome rhyme goes on. It's the story of how one little Indian after another drops dead until there are none left
The play at the Lawrence Community Theatre is not based on the Mother Goose rhyme but on the Agatha Christie murder mystery "Ten Little Indians."
Several University of Kansas professors and members of the Lawrence community have brought Christie's play to life. The audience, watching actors drop dead, will be left wondering who's committing the murders. The first performances started last weekend and also will be shown this weekend.
Director Ione Uaruh, said the play was similar to the 1930s original script except that costumes and language had been updated.
The stage is a small square in the center of the theatre. The play opens as ten people arrive at the house of their host, known only as Mr. Owen. The visitors are innocent to the murderous plan of Owen. In fact, none of the visitors even know Owen, who has lured them to the remote island. And as they later discover, Owen does not really exist.
Suddenly the first visitor dies, choking to death.
Just as the ten people begin to feel at home, a tape recorded voice begins to accuse each of them of murder. Each of the visitors violently denies the accusation.
studently the first visitor dies, choking to death.
The others think the death is an accident. But that
still doesn't happen. A child falls into the Indian boys, which is in a frame behind the
couch, is the visitors' first clue of what is happen.
ing. They suspect that they will all be murdered in a sequence and in a manner described in the poem. And they're right.
As the tension builds, the audience serves as a jury to identify the murderer. But the cast keeps this secret concealed until the twisted ending.
Larry Sherr, professor of business who plays the butter, Mr. Rogers, said he enjoyed performing in this sort of old fashioned murder mystery. The play did not set out to convey any message, but was strictly created for entertainment purposes, he said.
The sound of ocean waves and dramatic music enhances the play. Sherr said that when the actors first started rehearsing with the soothing sound of the waves, the acting became dull.
Uruhad said the small stage and the many props created some technical difficulties for the actors.
"We had to get used to that, because suddenly we all got too soothed by the sound," Sherr said.
"In this small space it was difficult for this many actors to move." Unrush said.
Ten sculptures of feathers, a gimmick symbolic for the Indians, were supposed to disappear as the guests were being killed. It took a lot of practice to arrange the disappearance of the props so that the audience wouldn't notice, Unruh said.
Robert Welch, professor of psychology who plays Phillip Lombard in the performance, said that he had some previous theatre experience and that he enjoyed being a part of the performance.
"It's a tremendous escape from the every day job," Welch said. "The truth is I guess I really enjoy being in front of people."